Resume Development

RESUME WRITING & FORWARDING SERVICE-AN ANALYSIS

Market is full of companies offering "specialized" resume writers who charge fancy prices for a resume. The front-forerunners in this business are the job sites. They employ telecallers to promote their "product". But do you know the real scene "behind the screens"?



A "professional resume" as they call it, does not actually cost a bomb. A leading job portal charges around Rs.1900/- for candidates with 10+ years experience. The charges are much higher for "international formats". The international format is no different But is the writer actually paid Rs.1900/- for his hard work? Far from truth.



A writer is paid only around Rs.400 to Rs.500 per resume. Most of the writers work on freelance basis for these companies. Part of the money collected goes in paying the front-line sales team and of-course infrastructure expenses. The rest is profit. It makes more sense to contact the free-lancers directly. Moreover, the turn around time in case of freelancers could be much better.



The only consolation is that the customer has got the resume from a "well-known" company. Many people are aware of this fact but still fall in the trap. Why? The company's sales strategy is excellent. The company prepares an excellent folder of "sample resumes" which are supposedly tailor-made to suit the customer's needs. Better still, they also offer a resume-forwarding service which sends resumes across to "top consultants" in India & Gulf. The customer is made to believe that his resume will receive "priority" on opting for this service. A simple reasoning will make us realize that if all people pay up, will they receive interview calls? A placement consultant is eager to place a candidate irrespective of the source from where he has obtained the resume. One can simply upload the resume on site for free. Moral of the story: The resume writing/forwarding service is a gimmick to play with the job-seekers' psychology.

Provident Fund

Provident Fund or more commonly known as PF is a familiar term for most of the salaried class of population. But most people are ill-informed about the withdrawal methods post-resignation or retirement.

In case the PF account is with the government PF office, it is not mandatory to get the withdrawal form attested by the employer. A notarized form will also serve the purpose. Where the PF account is with a trust (floated by the employer), getting money could be difficult but is definitely not impossible.

Organizations running a PF trust try to armtwist its employees into coughing up money before releasing the PF amount or simply hold back the amount citing improper exit etc. Whatever be the reason, release of PF amount and such silly excuses have no relation. Escalating the matter to the relevant PF commissioner is generally helpful. Registering on http://darpg-grievance.nic.in/ can also be helpful. Employees who are not aware of such channels generally get stuck and end up giving into the unreasonable demands of employers.

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Freshers-Interview

Fresh graduates attending interviews seem to be the most confused lot. Although it is understandable that they have no clue about the kind of work they may like until they actually do it, but it always helps in doing a bit of home work before attending an interview. The answers may be framed as per the job requirements and the candidate should demonstrate suitability for the position interviewed for. Since most of the interviews are held by line managers/functional heads, it is futile to show one's programming capabilities to a Sales Head!!!

I had interviewed an interesting candidate some time ago. She was brilliant, well-networked and had the gift of the gab. She was the right candidate to join me to develop business (incidentally I am working for a well-known Indian company). However, she disclosed to me that this job would just be a temporary parking space until she got an opportunity in a functional area of her choice (software testing). This statement worked against her and she was rejected by the interview committee. It must be noted that every interviewer has his own ego as well as loyalty to his company/industry/functional area. No interviewer would like to hear that his company/department/function is a 2nd choice (this especially holds good for top-notch corporates). However, aligning one's answers to the job requirements need not mean trying to bluff your way through the interview. An MBA graduate wanted to impress us by saying that he read only english newspapers. He went to the extent of naming the newspapers--Hindustan Express, Times Group of Publication, Hindu Express--without our asking for it and made a fool of himself. It is perfectly fine if you have read only regional newspapers as long as you are updated about the current affairs.

Another major mistake committed by inexperienced candidates is attending an interview without adequately revising one's academic fundamentals or reading about the company. Most of the companies have their details hosted on the web. It is worth reading a few aspects about the company before heading straight for that interview. It is also better to be talking in sync with your resume. I met one candidate who mentioned his favourite sport to be Cricket whereas his resume mentioned Football.